[This was the Temper of that Leacher that carnal'd with a Statua.]] The Latine Annotator upon this hath these words: Romæ refertur de Hispano quodam. But certainly the Author means the Statue of Venus Gnidia made by Praxiteles, of which a certain young man became so enamoured, that Pliny relates, Ferunt amore captum cum delituisset nocta simulachro cohæsisse, ejusq; cupiditas esse indicem masculum. Lucian also has the story in his Dialog. [Amores.]
[And the constitution of Nero in his Spintrian recreations.]] The Author doth not mean the last Nero, but Tiberius the Emperour, whose name was Nero too; of whom Sueton. Secessu vero Capreensi etiam sellariam excogitavit sedem arcanarum libidinum, in quam undique conquisti puellarum et exoletorum greges monstrosiq; concubitus repertores, quos spintrias apellabat, triplici serie connexi invicem incestarent se coram ipso, ut adspectu deficientes libidines excitaret. Suet. in Tib. 43.
Sect. 8 Pag. 98.
[I have seen a Grammarian toure and plume himself over a single line in Horace, and shew more pride, etc.]] Movent mihi stomachum Grammatistæ quidam, qui cum duas tenuerint vocabularum origenes ita se ostentant, ita venditant, ita circumferunt jactabundi, ut præ ipsis pro nihilo habendos Philosophos arbitrentur. Picus Mirand. in Ep. ad Hermol. Barb. quæ extat lib. nono Epist. Politian.
Garsio quisq; duas postquam scit jungere partes,
Sic stat, sic loquitur, velut omnes noverit artes.
Pag. 99.
[I cannot think that Homer pin'd away upon the Riddle of the Fishermen.]] The History out of Plutarch is thus: Sailing from Thebes to the Island Ion, being landed and set down upon the shore, there happen'd certain Fishermen to pass by him, and he asking them what they had taken, they made him this Enigmatical answer, That what they had taken, they had left behind them; and what they had not taken, they had with them: meaning, that because they could take no Fish, they went to loose themselves; and that all which they had taken, they had killed, and left behind them, and all which they had not taken, they had with them in their clothes: and that Homer being struck with a deep sadness because he could not interpret this, pin'd away, and at last dyed. Pliny alludes to this Riddle, in his Ep. to his Friend Fuscus, where giving an account of spending his time in the Country, he tells him, Venor aliquando, sed non sine pugilluribus, ut quamvis nihil ceperim, non nihil referam. Plin. Ep. lib. 9, Ep. 36.
[Or that Aristot.——did ever drown himself upon the flux or reflux of Euripus.]] Laertius reports that Aristotle dyed of a disease at 63 years of age. For this and the last, see the Author in Pseudodox.
[Aristotle doth but instruct us as Plato did him, to confute himself.]] In the matter of Idea's, Eternity of the world, etc.